WHAT IS A HOME

 

WHAT IS A HOME

A house is is a building made for people to live in. A home is a place where one lives, especially with one’s family.  According to English clergy James Hamilton  (1864 – 1867 ) six things are requisite to create a “happy home.”  Integrity must be the architect, and tidiness the upholsterer. It must be warmed by affection, lighted up with cheerfulness; industry must be the ventilator, renewing the atmosphere  and bringing in fresh salubrity day by day; while overall, as a protecting canopy and glory, nothing will suffice except the blessing og God.     

            Here is a poem by English poet Charles Swain (1801-1874). Its title is Home Is Where There Is One To Love Us. It reads as  follows:

Home’s is not merely four square walls,

Though with pictures hung and gilded;

Home is where affection calls—

Filled with shrines the Hearth had builded!

Home! Go watch the faithful dove,

Sailing ‘neath the heaven above us.

Home is where there is one to love!

Home is where there’s one to love us.

 

Home’s not merely roof and room,

It needs something to endear it;

Home is where the heart can bloom,

Where there’s some kind lip to cheer it!

What is home with none to meet,

None to welcome, none to greet us?

Home is sweet, and only sweet,

Where theirs is one we love to meet us !

                        ********

G.R.Kanwal

10 December 2023